Nutcrackers have been around a long time, but few of them have proved really satisfactory. Most of them have worked on the principle of crushing a nut, and many of them have done so with a construction which made the operation very slow and unsatisfactory in other ways. For example, some nutcrackers have had a socket in which one end of the nut was inserted, then a threaded member placed another socket up against the nut, and between these two sockets the nut was crushed. This rarely resulted in getting the nut meat out whole, or in halves. Even if done carefully and slowly the cracking tended to take place suddenly and the nut meats were often fragmented. Moreover, the shells and nut meats tended to be scattered around because the nut reacted to the crushing forces with kind of a explosive reaction.
Among the objects of the present invention are the following: to provide a nutcracker which is efficient and rapid, whether in home operation or factory operation; to provide a nutcracker which produces a very large percentage of whole or half nut meats when used with nuts such as walnuts and pecans; to provide a nutcracker from which the cracked nuts simply fall down into a collecting container, from which the nut meat and shells can be retrieved and readily separated; to provide a lever type action for home use which can be operated not only with precision, but also with rapidity to achieve a very large percentage, of whole or half nut meats; and to provide a commercial unit which can operate rapidly in achieving a very large percentage of whole or half nut meats.